In this mailing:
- Guy Millière: Hamas and Islamic Jihad are Terrorist Organizations and Should be Treated as Such
- Lawrence A. Franklin: Afghan War: Hope for Exit, No Hope for Peace
by Guy Millière • May 21, 2019 at 5:00 am
The leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) walked away from the negotiating table a long time ago and show no interest in returning. They have continually refused to do what the Trump administration has asked: stop funding terrorism. They have shown again and again that they do not want a state living peacefully alongside Israel; they want to displace Israel. They have rejected the most generous proposals made by Israeli prime ministers, such as one made by Ehud Olmert in 2008, which included a near-total withdrawal from West Bank and the end of Israeli control of Jerusalem's Old City.
The Middle East scholar, Daniel Pipes, observing that Israel's leaders shy away from victory, writes: "The only way for the conflict to be resolved is for one side to give up."
"[F]iring 600 rockets at civilian targets in a neighboring country is an act of war... and as such it grants the nation-state [Israel] the authority under the international law of armed conflict not just to disable the specific military assets used to carry it out but to destroy those who carried it out... It's time for the world community to stop imposing these double standards on Israel, and start doing what international law requires: holding Hamas responsible for the devastation that results from Israel's legal, necessary, and proper responses to its provocations. Only then will Hamas know that if it sows the wind, it could truly reap the whirlwind..." — David French, National Review, May 6, 2019.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, bordering Israel's south, have up to 20,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel. More than 150,000 rockets and missiles are deployed in Iran's proxy country to Israel's north, Lebanon. Pictured: A house in the town of Yehud, Israel, destroyed by a rocket fired by Hamas from Gaza, July 22, 2014. (Image source: IDF/Wikimedia Commons)
On May 5 and 6, 700 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israeli territory in less than 48 hours. It was the most intensive rocket offensive on Israel to date. Four people were killed: three Israelis and one Palestinian Arab worker. One of the Israelis was hit in his car by an anti-tank missile. The Israeli military retaliated and resumed targeted killings. One was to a Hamas member, Hamed al-Khoudary, considered responsible for the transfer of Iranian funds to the armed factions in Gaza. On May 6, a spokesman from Islamic Jihad and Hamas announced a ceasefire and said they had got "what they wanted".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a short statement: "We struck a powerful blow against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The campaign is not finished, and it will require patience and careful judgment. We're prepared for its continuation".
by Lawrence A. Franklin • May 21, 2019 at 4:00 am
President Trump should be lauded for working toward a withdrawal from Afghanistan, where 14,000 U.S. troops still remain. But he should not expect to leave behind a peaceful situation in the failed state, which is made up of a complex web of tribal divisions and hostilities.
Yet another factor militating against national unity is that Pashtun clans appear not to view Afghanistan's non-Pashtun ethnic minorities as equal partners in a future Afghanistan.
These Persian, Mongol and Turkic peoples, based upon their past armed resistance to Pashtun attempts to control the whole of Afghanistan, will most likely fight to maintain their autonomy. This historical reality alone should be sufficient cause for U.S. policy-makers to abandon the seemingly impossible task of building a unified, democratic, pro-Western Afghanistan.
Sadly, no amount of blood, money or time spent in Afghanistan has been, or possibly will be, able to fashion it into a peaceful, united and democratic country.
Sadly, no amount of blood, money or time spent in Afghanistan has been, or possibly will be, able to fashion it into a peaceful, united and democratic country. Pictured: U.S. Army soldiers carry a critically wounded American soldier on a stretcher to an awaiting helicopter, on June 24, 2010 near Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In his State of the Union address on February 5, U.S. President Donald Trump said that his administration was "holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups, including the Taliban... [in order] to be able to reduce our troop presence and focus on counter-terrorism."
Trump continued, "We do not know whether we will achieve an agreement — but we do know that after two decades of war, the hour has come to at least try for peace."
On April 26, following a meeting in Moscow on the status of the Afghan "peace process," representatives of the U.S., China, and Russia released the following joint statement:
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